A fashion shoot’s utter insensitivity gets Bad PR this week

 7th August 2014    Good and Bad PR 
 Paarul Chand

Bad PR

Fashion shoot creates a completely insensitive campaign around Nirbhaya gang rape

Trying to editorialise rape through a fashion pic is never a good idea. A fashion shoot by Raj Shetye recreates the Nirbhaya gang rape – the picture tells the story:


Photo courtesy: Model-actor Jitin Gulati's profile on Behance

The photographer has since denied that it was based on the Nirbhaya incident. “It (the photo shoot) is not based on Nirbhaya," Shetye told Buzfeed, referring to the fictitious name given to the Delhi gang-rape victim.
 
"I wanted to throw light on Indian patriarchy and a male dominated society. I actually was using the photo-shoot to highlight women's empowerment and lack of safety in India. It's not true that I used the Nirbhaya incident to create awareness. This is my depiction of the current situation using a medium I know and can communicate well in. Consider this. I did with photography what a writer would do if he had to write about that incident," Shetye told IBNLive .

Such campaigns never ever work. You all remember the fallout of the Ford Figo ads, one of which showed the Kardashians stuffed in the boot of a Ford Figo. The series of ads made for awards resulted in the sacking of Bobby Pawar, JWT India's former managing partner and chief creative officer:

In 2008, Vogue India created a furore by modelling poor people in designer wear:

In Vogue India magazine, a child from a poor family modelled a Fendi bib, which cost about $100 then.

Certain issues should never be used for campaigns.

Good PR

Asian Paints uses #PlopUps to enhance the digital experience of colours

The response to pop ups is probably,"Out damned pop ups”. But Asian Paints has tried to make pop ups a thing of beauty by combining a beautiful picture in what they call  “Plop Ups”, along with interesting factoids.

Check this one out on tigers – I just found out that tiger stripes are unique much like fingerprints:

Zippo lighter asks users to #ShareThePain of losing their lighter in India and 8 other countries

Now this is a smart campaign which actually generates data beyond smart lines. The iconic Zippo lighter is not an object Zippo lovers want to lose. So Zippo asked consumers to #ShareThePain of losing their lighter. Zippo also conducted a fun study looking at – what are the most lost items? And what is the most common reaction in each country, including India, after losing a Zippo.



According to a presentation by Zippo, the results generated media coverage and social media buzz in India:

Have you seen any good and bad PR?

Write to Paarul Chand at paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.